If you watched last night's Yankees-Indians game you noticed that Joba Chamberlain was bothered far more by the insects than he was by any of the Indians' hitters. And, if you didn't have the good sense to mute the broadcast, you heard Steve Phillips and Co. go on and on and on about the famous "midge" game from the 2007 Division Series. I watched enough of the game to get the gist, but whenever the announcers kept going back to that and their two or three other tired topics that didn't have much to do with the game, I flipped over to something far more worth my time.

Anyway, the game's events have tHeMARksMiTh looking back fondly at a time when grounds crews knew how to deal with bugs:

The night was June 2, 1959, and the Baltimore Orioles called upon the Chicago White Sox. Before the game started, gnats swarmed around pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm. The grounds crew came out and started batting at them with a towel, but it didn't work. Then, they went to find bug spray, but that wasn't the answer, either (sound familiar?). Finally, they get a bright idea. Smoke bombs! Attaching them to the fireworks display, the grounds crew set them off. Smoke covered the field, and the game was delayed a half an hour. However, the smoke cleared and the gnats were gone.

I suppose if they did that today there would be lawsuits and OSHA complaints and everything. But this is baseball we're talking about here, and baseball is important.